Oh jeez, my memory of the history of the sighthound is very very foggy, so all I can say definitively is that the Saluki is a very ancient breed and retains primal sighthound characteristics. Unfortunately, cancer is not an uncommon disease in this breed. Still, overall, Salukis are very healthy (as are most sights).

Since they are sighthounds, they don't have a very high drive to please their owner. Their original function was to seek prey and to run it down. There is absolutely no human intervention. Therefore, sighthounds usually don't make the best obedience competitors. Some people mistake this for "low intelligence". WRONG WRONG WRONG. Sighthounds are very intelligent in ways that humans can never imitate (can *you* catch sight of an animal and run up to 40 mph to chase it down?).

Sighthounds are the best. What can I say? They're all greyt!!